I’ve just finished metamorphosis and I took from it that Gregor turning into a insect was a metaphor for how he is coming to terms with how he is not as important as he thought he was and is insignificant like an insect
However, I also found it kinda relates to puberty and the shift through teenage years. As its seen as ugly, messy and a sudden change in the body. Then at the end of the story greta seems to change from a girl to a women who’s ready to start dating and this happens once gregor dies as if she has now transitioned out of the so called ugly, messy phase.
What are your interpretations on the story? I feel like the puberty link is abit stupid but I’ve found no one else really make the connection
by ufro203
3 Comments
I’ve always taken any absurdist existential work to be a reflection on how unimportant we are as humans. And that’s how I interpreted the story.
My favorite reading of it is a disability allegory. Mind you, I don’t think it was actually meant that way, but it clicks for me. The abrupt, scary, very physical change in your body; the complex and often messy feelings your family has about it; the sense of shame and alienation that is only growing with time… you get the gist.
Kafka was probably working through some issues and anxieties as a Jew living in Prague at the time. The choice of turning into an insect feels pretty deliberate considering the antisemitic characterization of Jews as “vermin” and “cockroaches.”